


Snow Bros

by 42hrb



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cuddling & Snuggling, Feelings, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Future Fic, M/M, Mutual Pining, Nursey's POV, Snow, Snow Day, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-04
Packaged: 2019-02-28 10:53:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13269948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/42hrb/pseuds/42hrb
Summary: A winter storm shuts down Samwell. Lucky for the team, Dex knows how to survive a blizzard.





	Snow Bros

**Author's Note:**

> IT'S COLD SO I WRITE SNUGGLES!

Nursey’s phone was ringing. Normally when he didn’t recognize the number, and sometimes when he did, he ignored it, but it was a Samwell area code so he picked up, “’Lo?”

It was a prerecorded message from the Dean of Students, “Due to inclement weather, Samwell University will be closed today and tomorrow. All classes are cancelled and campus dining services will be closing at 4 PM to allow employees to get home safely. Any students living on campus who need dining options will be able to report to the student center. Please check your student email for further updates, and stay warm.”

He listened to the message again because he had just woken up and he really didn’t want it to be a dream. It wasn’t. His phone rang again, this time it was Bitty, “Sup Bits.”

“Honey, I need you and whoever is at the Haus to do me a favor,” Bitty’s voice was rushed. Nursey would have asked why Bitty was assuming he was at the Haus, but he had made a big show at morning practice of announcing that he was going back to sleep after his 10 AM class and would not get out of bed until at least 3, so please don’t bother him.

He rolled out of his lower bunk and tugged on a pair of flannel lined jeans, they were Dex’s, but it was cold as shit outside, “Yeah brah, whatever you need.”

“I need y’all to head to Stop-and-Shop to pick up some food before they sell out of everything, and please get me some more flour and butter, I’m nearly out,” Bitty spoke quickly, “I have to go, I have a meeting with my advisor about my thesis that she just won’t cancel.  _ Northerners _ .”

“Don’t worry Bitty, we got you,” Derek pulled on a sweater, also Dex’s, before walking downstairs to find Dex sitting at the kitchen table working on homework.

“That’s my sweater,” Dex didn’t even look up from his laptop, “I know you have your own.”

“No time, Bitty is sending us on an emergency mission,” Nursey grinned, ignoring the way his stomach fluttered when Dex rolled his eyes fondly at Nursey’s dramatics. He was glad they lived together, they had both started to let their walls down and it turned out they were actually pretty ‘sawesome friends.

“Why?”

“Didn’t you get the message about school closing?”

“No…” Dex looked down at his phone where 3 missed calls and 1 voicemail flashed on the front, “Oh. Oh shit, people are going to panic and buy all the bread, milk, and eggs.”

Dex was up and moving faster than he did even on the ice, pulling his boots on and coat, “Chill Poindexter, they just called like two seconds ago.”

“Nursey, Derek,” Will threw him his coat, “Have you never lived through a real snowstorm? The kind that shuts down the roads? The kind of cold where salt doesn’t work on the roads anymore? People are  _ insane _ .”

“I’m starting to get that,” Derek pulled his hat on and opened the door. The air was biting and the snow felt like it was stabbing him, but Dex didn’t complain, so Derek didn’t either. What he did do was stoop down and try to make a snowball to throw at Dex. It didn’t work.

“It’s too cold for the snow to pack properly,” Dex explained with a soft smile, the kind that he had started giving to Derek back in September, after they’d spent a summer trying to figure out how living together was going to work.

Everyone except Bitty had stayed at the Haus for the summer, Dex, Ollie, and Wicky had taken over Holster and Ransoms landscaping side gig, and Dex was doing some contract programming on the side, Chowder had been invited to three training camps on the East Coast and was using the Haus as his landing pad so he could work out at Faber, and Nursey had gotten a summer research assistantship with his advisor.

It was actually an awesome summer. Derek was sure that he and Dex would have had a much harder time adjusting to living together had they not had three months without most of the team bothering them. Instead they got to ease into it and commiserate together about the humid Massachusetts summer. Dex hadn’t even complained when Nurse had shown up one day in June with a window AC unit for their room.

But that was months ago, when the weather hadn’t been literally  _ painful _ , “Bro it’s so cold out.”

“You didn’t have to touch the snow,” Dex pointed out, but he shed his mittens and handed them to Derek, “Put these on before you lose a finger.”

“Aww do you care,” Nursey grinned, putting the mittens on.

“You’d miss at least two games if you lose a finger to frostbite,” Dex shrugged. He looked beautiful like this, snow falling around him, his cheeks pink from the cold, his hat pulled low over his ears to keep them warm, “Can’t go breaking in a new partner mid-season, that’s just crazy.”

They walked in silence for another minute or two until Derek asked, “Why’d we have to go to Murder Stop-and-Shop? It’s further from the Haus.”

“It’s also further from campus and less people will be there,” Dex walked a little faster, “It won’t be as bad coming back, the wind will be at our backs at least.”

“I’m going to freeze,” Derek muttered, “I’m not built for this.”

“You grew up in New York and went to high school in Massachusetts, don’t front Nurse.”

“Yeah, but in Manhattan I just didn’t go outside if I didn’t have to and at Andover we had tunnels under the school and when it snowed bad enough to cancel school they still had to feed us so we didn’t have to leave,” Derek explained as they approached the store.

Dex’s face twitched like he wanted to say something about how that was a privilege, but he kept his mouth shut. They had come to a tentative truce when it came to talking about different kinds of privilege. Dex now knew that Derek had faced some fucked up racist bullshit all his life, but especially at Andover, he even agreed that because he was white he didn’t face that kind of discrimination.

And Derek now knew that Dex had grown up in and out of foster care. That his dad had left the family when Dex was 6 and that his mom was a recovering addict. She loved her kids, but that wasn’t always enough. Derek had been lucky to have not just two loving parents, but three. He had his two moms who had raised him and his dad, who was his moms’ best friend and the sperm donor for both himself and his sister.

“Can we just get inside,” Nursey started jogging and then almost slipped on the ice, the only thing stopping him from toppling over was Dex’s hand on his arm, “Thanks.”

“What do we need to get besides the basics?” Dex asked, grabbing a cart and putting four cases of water into it.

“Bitty needs baking stuff,” Derek tossed chips into the cart and Dex rolled his eyes, but didn’t say anything.

“You grab what Bitty needs and I’ll get the rest,” Dex walked away before Derek could say anything. Derek grabbed all the baking stuff he could think of, flour, sugar, brown sugar, a metric shit ton of butter, and 5 dozen eggs since they all ate them and Bitty baked with them. He figured Bitty would have all the fancy stuff he needed already, but he did throw in some peanut butter and chocolate chips in case Bitty felt like making his famous cookies.

Dex appeared with two flashlights, batteries, four loaves of bread, protein bars, cereal, milk, and two 12 packs of canned tuna.  He grabbed a bag of oranges, a bunch of bananas, apples, and the family pack of baby carrots.

“We’re going to have to borrow the cart,” Nurse joked as Dex put three cases of beer into the cart too.

“We’re going to buy two of those sleds and pull it all home,” Dex said, looking through the cart again, “Should we get another dozen eggs so we can hard boil a bunch of them? We should.”

Nursey watched Dex in amazement. Dex had always had the most practical skills of the team, something that made sense when you learned more about him, but this was next level.

“Dude it’s a snow storm, not the apocalypse,” Nursey said as Dex added another loaf of bread, two more jars of peanut butter, and another two dozen eggs.

“First of all, they’re calling this storm a  _ bomb cyclone _ so it’s not just a snowstorm, and second, you know that half the team is going to come over for food when they figure out that they’re only handing out protein bars and bottled water on campus.”

“True,” Derek nodded, pushing the cart to checkout. Dex grabbed two of the bright orange sleds from near the door.

They paid in cash taken from the Sin Bin and Derek marveled again as Dex got all of their stuff to fit on the sleds without falling off, “Give me one of my mittens.”

Derek complied, handing Dex one mitten and pulling one sled with his still covered hand. By the time they made it back to the Haus the lights were on in the kitchen and they could hear Chowder and Bitty talking.

“Yo, come help us with the groceries,” Nurse called as he and Dex safely carried one sled into the kitchen. Ollie and Wicky appeared from the living room to grab the other.

“Did y’all buy the entire store,” Bitty chirped, but stopped when he saw the baking supplies, “Oh Lord you two are angels.”

“We should boil some of these eggs now, in case we lose power,” Dex was still in action mode; it shouldn’t have been such a turn on, but here Nursey was, nursing a competency kink the size of California.

An hour later, once Dex was satisfied with the food situation, he ran up to their room and came back with a small battery powered radio that had mostly been used to listen to Red Sox games.

“Well practice tomorrow is cancelled,” Bitty informed them, “Coach Murray just texted me, and he thinks that our game against Princeton will be postponed because they won’t be able to get here.”

“Long weekend,” Ollie shouted from the living room just as Wicky yelled, “Snow Kegster!”

“Just the team!” Bitty called back to them, “We don’t have that much beer.”

Dex laughed, he seemed more relaxed now that they were back from the store and he had done everything under his control to make sure they were stocked up in case they got stuck in the Haus for a few days, “Should we text the rest of the team?”

“I already sent a group message to everyone, do you ever check your phone, William?” Bitty smiled brightly at them, “I think I’ll make some of those peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.”

Nursey internally fist pumped and grabbed Dex by the arm, “Come on Poindexter, let’s leave Bitty and Chowder to the warmth of the kitchen.”

“Sorry,” Dex said as they climbed the stairs to their room to change out of their jeans, “I kind of get hyper focused when stuff needs to get done.”

“I know,” Derek slung his arm over Dex’s shoulder, “It’s one of the things that both terrifies me and amazes me about you Poindexter.”

“I just,” Dex didn’t duck out from Derek’s arm as they entered their room, he leaned into him, “One time when we were kids there was a big storm that came in and mom wasn’t home, so it was just Mikey, Kat, and me trying to survive for two days on three cans of tuna, half a loaf of bread, a few slices of cheese, and half a gallon of water. I guess I don’t ever want that to happen again.”

Derek’s heart clenched, of course Dex’s over-preparedness came from something shitty in his childhood, just like Derek’s fear of the cops came from all the times he was pulled over and had his car searched for  _ nothing _ he had done wrong.

“Dude- Will -  I won’t ever let that shit happen to you again,” Derek turned his casual arm into a hug. He felt it when Dex relaxed into it and then he squeezed tighter, “We’re a family here, we’ve all got your back.”

Dex nodded into Derek’s neck and let out a long breathe, “I’m just glad that Kat and her husband live on a military base in Germany now, and that Mikey’s staying with my grandpa in Portland so they can look out for each other.”

“And you’re here with us, a dude from New York who doesn’t know how to deal with the snow, a Southerner who’s going to bake through the storm, a kid from California who’s probably huddled next to the oven, and two bros from the Midwest who will probably end up drinking beer in their underwear on the front lawn before the snow stops.”

“Sounds about right,” Dex laughed and the tense mood was broken, “Thanks Nursey.”

“For what?”

“For not telling me to chill about preparing, for just getting me,” Dex shrugged and turned away to get sweats out of his dresser. He tossed Nursey a pair of his own and they both changed, “Want to watch some Parks and Rec before going downstairs and dealing with half the team?”

“Fuck yeah I do,” Nursey crawled into his bed and pat the spot next to him. Before he crawled in Dex grabbed his quilt from the back of the desk chair, “What is my blanket not good enough for you?”

“It’s  _ cold _ ,” Dex got under Derek’s blanket and then threw the quilt over top of that, “You can never have too many blankets.”

Derek didn’t disagree, instead he snuggled in closer to Dex and whispered, “Body heat is also good for the cold.”

Dex huffed out a laugh, but lifted his arm so Derek could tuck himself under it, “You big baby.”

“My people are from warm climates,” Nursey argued weakly, “Just turn on the show, I want to laugh.”

“Am I not funny enough for you? I get it, whatever Nursey,” Dex teased and Derek’s stomach swooped again. This was really starting to turn into an issue.

They were part of the way into the third episode when the doorbell rang and Bitty called up the stairs, “Come on down here boys, we’re having team bondin’”

Nursey didn’t whine when he said, “But I’m so cozy, Dexy make Bitty leave us alone.”

Derek expected Dex to just climb over him and then drag him out of the bed, it had happened before, “I don’t smell any cookies yet, maybe we can finish this episode.”

Derek smiled softly and snuggled in closer to Dex, “Hey Dex?”

“Yeah Nurse?”

“You know we’re cuddling right?”

“I am aware of that,” Dex sounded like he was laughing, so Derek turned to look at him. Dex  _ was _ smiling.

“And you’re okay with that?”

“I’m okay with a lot of stuff. I’m  _ more _ than okay with a lot of stuff,” Dex’s smile hadn’t faded at all, “I figured you knew that by now.”

“What stuff are we talking about?”

“You really don’t know?” Now his smile faltered; Derek reached up and poked Dex’s mouth, “You’re a child.”

“Do you want to tell me what I don’t know?” Derek asked instead of acknowledging the subject change Dex had offered him.

Will took the hand that wasn’t gently tracing the exposed skin between Derek’s pants and shirt and brought it up to Derek’s face, “I’m  _ super  _ gay dude.”

“I – what? You’re gay?” Derek’s entire perspective on William Poindexter shifted on its axis, “Since always?”

“Yep, it was just kind of repressed,” Dex hadn’t moved his hand, Derek leaned into the touch, “It took a lot of talking with Shitty, and Bitty, and a counselor here at Samwell, but here I am. Super gay and I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m kind of into the whole cuddling with you thing.”

“Just the cuddling part?” Derek fished, letting himself feel hope for the first time since August when he’d let himself admit that he had a crush on Dex.

“Not just that part,” Dex’s gaze drifted down to Derek’s mouth and Derek took that as a hint. He leaned in and kissed Dex lightly on the lips.

Dex let out a soft breath through his nose, almost a sigh, and Derek couldn’t help but smile into the kiss, “Is this the part you were talking about.”

“Now it is,” Will kissed him again, rolling so that he was on top of him. Derek’s hands found their way to Will’s hair and his neck; it was better than anything Derek had let himself imagine.

“Now I hollered for y’all fifteen minutes ago,” Bitty knocked on the door and they broke apart just before he came in, “Jack sent over pizza, I saved you both a couple slices but Tango just got here so I can’t promise they’ll still be there by the time you get downstairs.”

“We’re coming,” Dex’s voice betrayed nothing, but Derek giggled, “Shut up Nurse.”

“You boys,” Bitty sighed, leaving the room, leaving the door open.

“We better go down there,” Dex rolled off the bed and extended a hand to Derek to help him up, “Come on.”

“I’m coming, but only because the personal heater is gone,” Nursey laughed, accepting Dex’s hand.

Half the team was in the kitchen and living room. They didn’t look confused when Dex and Nursey came in holding hands, in fact, Chowder’s entire face lit up and Ollie handed Wicky twenty dollars.

“Pizza?” Bitty handed them each a plate. That was it, that was the entire reaction they got and Derek was grateful.

Derek looked out the window to see the snow really coming down; the wind howled outside and the Haus did that thing where it kind of shook with the wind, but Derek didn’t feel cold, in fact he felt warmer than he had in a long time.

The rest of the night passed with the team drinking beer and playing video games. “Hey Derek?”

“Huh?” Derek looked up from his spot with his head in Will’s lap.

“Want to go to bed?”

“But ‘m cozy,” Derek muttered, nuzzling closer to Will in a way that would have gotten them fined on a normal day, but they had put a freeze on fines for the snow day.

“Derek, let’s go to bed.”

“Oh,” Derek shot up and practically dragged Will off the couch and up the stairs.

“Fines are reinstated at midnight,” Bitty yelled up at them. He was in the kitchen with two bottles of wine and Whiskey, teaching him how to weave a lattice.  

“Yes Cap,” Will shouted back, “Think you can be quiet Nurse?”

“I can if you keep my mouth busy,” Nursey winked.

They ended up with a list of fines taped to their door the next day. They didn’t find it until almost dinner time when they had finished the box of protein bars in their room and the jug of water. Derek put a twenty into the Sin Bin, then another.

“For the fines we’re going to get later,” Derek explained to a confused looking Tango, “It’s cold and Poindexter is really good at keeping me warm.”

Will rolled his eyes fondly but didn’t disagree. It was true after all. 

They didn’t leave the house until Sunday morning. The snow had finally stopped falling and the temperatures broke 0 for the first time in five days. Derek actually managed to throw a snowball at Will on their way back from brunch. It was worth if when Will tackled him into the snow in the front yard of the Haus. 

They made out until Ollie and Wicky came outside with a case of beers and lawn chairs threatening to rate their form if they didn’t take it inside. 

They did and they warmed up really quickly. 

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](exhuastedpigeon.tumblr.com)


End file.
